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The Weight of Testimony
If religious books are not widely circulated
among the masses in this country, I do not know
what is going to become·of us as a nation. If
truth be not diffused, error will be; if God and
His Word are not known and received, the devil
and his works will gain the ascendancy; if the
evangelical volume does not reach evety hamlet,
the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature
will; if the power of the Gospel is not felt
throughout the length and breadth of the land,
anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery,
corruption and darkness will reign without end.
-- Daniel Webster
If we abide by the principles taught in the
Bible, our country will go on prospering, but ifwe
and our posterity neglect its instruction and
authority, no man can tell how sudden a
catastrophe may ovetwhelm us and bury us and
our gloty in profound obscurity.
-- Daniel Webster
Shouldnot the Bible regain the place it once
held as a schoolbook? Its morals are pure, its
examples are captivating and noble.... In no
Book is there so good English, so pure and so
elegant, and by teaching all the same they will
speak alike, and the Bible will justly remain the
standard oflanguage as well as of faith.
-- Fisher Ames, 18th Century Statesman
Fortune, by which I understand Providence,
has showeredblessings upon me profusely. But
they have been blessings ,unforeseen and
unsought 'Non nobis, Domine, ..non nobis, sed
nomini tuo da gloriam.
'
Not to us, Lord, not to
us, but to your name be the glOty.
·
-- John Quincy Adams, 1848
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